


Moving on

by BloodStainsBlue



Category: Final Fantasy X
Genre: And had writer's block, F/F, Fluff, Just a little dumb thing, Kind of romantic at the end, Romance, Spiders, i was bored, so I wrote this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 20:37:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1913025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BloodStainsBlue/pseuds/BloodStainsBlue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A deathly fear of spiders and a stolen ring. What's the worst that could come out of that?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moving on

**Author's Note:**

> So... yeah. I was bored so I decided to write this. I'm not sure how it turned out. Let me know what you think in the comments! I love constructive criticism, so don't be shy!

__

I’m a little girl. Maybe… five or six. I still have my jet black hair, although at that time it only reached my shoulders, hanging dead on my shoulders. My eyes are not hidden by it, but stand out brightly, the blood red of my irises looking like a deep burgundy in the darkness. I’m wearing a short child’s nightdress, a dark purple gown made of the finest Besaid silk gil can buy, decorated with small kittens and birds that for some reason smile in presence of one of their greatest predators, as if they are not afraid of being devoured at any moment. 

__

I always liked to walk around at night. My father would take me out and we’d walk down the path, looking down the cliff at the jungle our habitat is built around, looking at the leaves of the trees that appeared a dark navy in the warm sheet of night covering them for bed. Whenever we would hear friends, I would not be afraid. My father was an expert at black magicks, being able to scorch or freeze anything that tried to harm us.

__

But now my father is dead. My mother as well. A Crusader found them on the beach after Sin attacked the island a year ago. I wasn’t allowed to see them or say goodbye. They were taken straight to the temple to be sent along with everyone else. They told me I wasn’t allowed to see them due to their terrible condition. The man who found them said he found only half of my mother floating in the water, and my father was lying in the sand with the trunk of a tree on his face, every bone crushed from the force of the hit.

__

I live at the temple now. That’s where all of the orphans live, taken care of by the monks and nuns who stalk the halls, most of them always glaring at the children there and always berating us, only telling us what we cannot do, always acknowledging us whenever we do something wrong and never when we do something commendable.

__

I have been told many times not to walk outside. “As soon as the sun touches the horizon, you are to get inside of the temple and you may not leave! It’s dangerous for young little girls to be out walking where fiends stalk and prowl, looking for prey!” The nun then pinches my cheek hard enough to turn my snow white skin into pale pink and stalks away, looking for other little children to berate.

__

“But it’s not dangerous!” I tell myself. “I’ve gone out loads of times, and I know how to make a bright red flame the size of my fist and I can summon a lightning bolt that will turn a small flower to ash!” I’m not afraid, so after all of the monks and nuns have finished making their rounds and praying and have finally retreated to their warm, comfortable rooms with warm, comfortable beds, I stand up from my childsize mattress lying on the floor next to all the others’ each one containing a child with no parents and no home and I sneak my way out of the temple and to the outdoors.

__

When the familiar cold air hits my skin and I feel it start to prickle and bump, all of my hairs standing on end, my insides become warm. Finally, I feel at home since my parents have died. Now I feel I can relax. 

__

I walk down the cold stone steps of the temple, looking around the village adorned with a hodgepodge of colored tents big enough for only a family of two or three. I look at the tent that used to belong to me and my parents, bright green with orange curtains that kept us from the world, now housing a family of two with a third on the way. All of the tents have their lights out, meaning almost everyone was probably asleep, but I still don’t want to risk getting caught. I close my eyes, steeling myself and then breaking out in a run. It feels weird, going from cold, hard stone to warm dirt. I let out a soft curse when my bare feet slam against a twig, but I keep running, not stopping until I’m outside of the village and all the way up the hill.

__

I fall to my knees, panting and wheezing, trying to bring myself back to a reasonable composure. 

__

Soon I stand again, and I begin walking down the familiar path again. As I walk, I look down at the jungle, both a familiar and foreign domain. I’ve seen the tops of the trees, but I’ve never been inside or seen the animals that traverse the treetops or meander across the leafy ground.

__

I stop and look down at the trees, thinking I heard a rustle in the canopy of the forest. I squint down at the forest, trying to see something, anything, but there’s nothing. I lean down more, more, further, further…

__

Suddenly, I feel the rope shake… it wasn’t that tall to begin with, and I could have easily fallen over. I go tumbling down the cliff, crying out as I roll farther and farther down the steep hill, until I get to the bottom and I’m surrounded by various brush and foliage. 

__

I slowly stand up, letting out soft whimpers as I feel my sore and possibly bruised muscles trying to support my weight. Looking around, I let out another soft whimper, because I actually have no idea how to get out of this leafy area. 

__

I stand up, looking around the large area nervously, hearing the rustle of the large, green leaves all around me as fiends stalk through, prowling the greenery for prey. I haven’t prepared for this! I just wanted a pleasant stroll through the familiar, not a wild trek through the unknown.

__

As I walk, I hear the animal calls and try to stay calm. The howling of the lupines and the loud screech of the peregrines catch my ear multiple times.

__

I keep walking until I feel something hit my ankle, causing me to cry out as I faceplant onto the floor. I let out another soft groan, not sure if my body can take any more abuse, and I look up, only able to see a large black blur surrounded by green foliage.

__

It takes me a few minutes to see what it is, but once I manage to identify it I let out a sharp scream that can probably be heard all the way back in the village. It’s a giant spider, just standing there and looking at me, it’s coal black eyes never looking away.

__

“Maybe it can’t see me,” I think to myself. I pray that’s the case, because I slowly start backing away. It doesn’t appear to be moving or reacting to me at all, so I keep slowly moving, hoping that I will be able to make a safe retreat.

__

All seems well… I’ve put quite a bit of distance between me and the arachnid and it still has not reacted… “Maybe it’s dead,” I silently muse to myself.

__

But, suddenly, I have a feeling of something bending beneath the weight of my hand. I put more and more pressure on it until… SNAP! The branch breaks beneath me, cutting through the thick silence of the air like a sword.

__

The creature before suddenly starts to move, as though it has just realized what’s been going on around it. It begins scuttling towards me, getting closer and closer, I let out an ear piercing scream….

__

XxX  
I wake up in my room of the Macalania Travel Agency in a cold sweat. A flashback I have quite often… but that’s not what awoke me, I know that much.

I lift up my hand and silently mouth “Pyro”, causing a small flame that fits neatly into my palm to help illuminate the pitch black room. 

At first, everything appears to be in order. Yuna’s still in the bed next to mine, sleeping safe and sound. Everything on her nightstand remains undisturbed, exactly as it was when I finished organising it. I turn my head to the right, looking at my own bed table. It, as well, looks picturesque and full, nothing gone. 

I put out the flame and sigh, realizing that perhaps it was just the dream that woke me up… “We’re perfectly safe here, right? That’s why we’re staying here and not in some tent in the middle of the road.” 

I reach my left hand over to my right, placing all four of my fingers around the ring finger to toy with one of my most prized possessions, the ring Chappu bestowed me with before he ran off to the Crusaders…

But my fingers touch only skin. No metal or gem to be found. I begin to panic, clasping my finger as though it’s possible I may have missed it somehow, but it’s still not there! I take a deep breath to regain the stoic composure I am so well known for. Once I feel I am calm again I summon the flame once more and look down at my finger. No trace of the ring anywhere. I look around the bed… maybe it’s fallen off somehow… but nothing. I lift up my sheets, remove the linens, throw the pillow off the bed… and that’s when I find it. 

A note, written in common Spiran script, has been tucked away under my pillow. I have to squint at the the white parchment in my hand even in the light, because the note looks as though it has been written by a child who still doesn’t know what each letter looks like yet. 

“Hey beautiful!  
Sorry I took the ring from you!  
Everybody’s gotta make a living somehow, right?  
-A”

I look at the note passively. Then I feel my hand shaking, trembling so hard the letters look like blurs in the air. I take the note into my other hand, the one holding the destructive heat, and I watch the piece of paper into black ashes that slowly fall to the floor.

It doesn’t take me long to decide what I’m going to do. I’m going to find the person who stole my ring and I’m going to kill them. The plan seems simple enough.

I throw on my heavy black leather dress in record time, because I know I need to catch this bastard quickly, and I grab my trusted moogle doll that allows me to focus my energy, making my spells ten times more powerful than they are all alone. I walk over to Yuna and kiss her forehead, whispering to her a soft goodbye that I reserve only for her.

Then I quickly walk away, out of the room and out of the inn, not even bothering to send a nod to the confused looking woman attending the desk.

I step out of the agency and I am immediately reminded of the night in the Besaid jungle when I first met my most mortal enemy… arachnids. The biting cold, the slight breeze blowing the white tufts of snow at me caused me to wince as the leather sticks to my skin due to the mixture of cold and wet.

I know what I must do, and I once again break out in a run, this time aiming for the forest, for I assume that’s the only place such a petty thief could have gone. Once I get closer to the forest, I freeze. There he is. Wearing a cloak of dark brown, reaching down to the ground and pooling a bit. He’s short, probably even shorter than tiny little Yuna.

I start to feel pity and regret. A child? A little boy who doesn’t know what to do, is desparate for gil and must to whatever he can to get it? But the other part of me shouts “No! He’s stolen something important from you! Get him and take it back!”

I start running again, and I assume the little boy hears my footsteps crunching against the snow, because he lets out a mousy squeak and starts running again.  
I start running once again, although my long dress stops me from running very far. However, I continue going, pushing my muscles to keep moving as fast and as hard as they can. I run into the brush, feeling the branches whip my skin and the leaves brush against me, but I keep pushing forward. However, the more I run, the farther the little boy gets from me, and soon I fall to the ground, winded and panting so hard it feels like my lungs are going to explode.

I look up at the boy who’s still pushing on even though I’ve stopped and I look down at the blue, cold ground. I’m not going to get my ring back, am I? I’ll never see it on my pale skin again, or feel the weight of it on my hand.

I look down at the ground and start to cry, silent tears streaming down my face. The thought of losing the last living relic from the only man I’ve ever loved… I couldn’t bare it. I didn’t want to bear it. 

I’m broken out of my trance by the sound of rustling leaves, and I immediately stand up, moogle clutched in my palm, assuming it’s the little boy with my ring. I’m ready. I’m going to kill him and take back what’s mine.

But… it’s not the little boy. It’s a creature… it reaches about my knees. Normally not too scary, but… eight black eyes that don’t blink, and eight legs that relentlessly chase after their prey until the hunt is complete…

Suddenly I feel like a little girl again. I’m scared and defenseless. I drop my doll and let out a scream as the creature lunges at me. My arms come up in front of my face, trying to provide even a weak shield for the impending attack that will surely take my life…

But just like last time… the attack never comes. I slowly move my arms away and look down at the dead creature on the floor, the little boy in front of it.

A strong hand grabs my arm and forcefully pulls me up to my feet, causing a soft whimper to escape my tiny throat. “Up, you stupid girl! Do you want to die!?”

The boy… no girl… removes her hood, to reveal the tiny blonde haired, green eyed, swirly pupiled girl I know so well.

Next thing I know I’m in the girl’s arms, (I would say she was cradling me but her head barely reached past my chest) and she’s saying, “Lu, are you okay!?”

I quickly regain my composure… at least on the outside… and I look down at Rikku, my scarlet eyes sharp as knives like usual. “Where’s my ring, Rikku?”

“You answer my question first!” she demanded, pouting up at me like a child.

“I’m fine, Rikku,” I answer simply, and even though she doesn’t seem at all satisfied with it, she still reaches into her pocket and pulls out my ring, handing it over begrudgingly. 

“Why’d you take it?” I ask, holding onto the ring in my fist tightly, not sliding it onto my finger as though I fear Rikku will rip it off. 

“It’s my turn to ask a question first!” she interjects, barely letting me finish getting the sentence out of my mouth. I roll my eyes, both being surprised that Rikku would act so childish and at the same time wondering why I’m so surprised. “Are you afraid of spiders?”

“What? Of course not!” I say quickly, and my cheeks turn a dusty pink, the closest thing I’ve come to blushing since Chappu’s untimely death. 

“Why?” Rikku asks, looking at me with large eyes, and I sigh, feeling like I have no choice but to tell her.

And as I tell her, I realize that I know that’s not true. Chappu asked me this question, when he heroically squashed a tiny spider that had been meandering along out bed. I brushed him off. And when Wakka asked me this question while taunting me with a spider that fit in his palm, frightening but harmless, I simply smacked him with my little cactuar doll and called him an idiot. And when Yuna asked me, setting the tiny arachnid onto a bush, having saved it from decimation by a flood of water, I laughed and told her not to be silly.

But Rikku… I told her everything. It felt good to let everything off of my chest. She was a surprisingly good listener, never interrupting me or questioning me; she just sat and watched me, listening to me, and at the end she just nodded and said, “I could help you get over that fear, if you wanted.”

“As though you were so good at handling yourself in scary situations,” I tease her, recalling her collapse in the Thunder Plains, gripping onto Tidus’ leg and begging to go home. 

She stuck her tongue out and yelled out, “Hey!” I felt her gently shove me and I couldn’t help but laugh softly, looking at her warmly. 

“I’m joking. I would appreciate the help,” I chuckle, looking back down at my now relaxed hand, the golden band resting right in the center of my palm. And then I recall my earlier question that I never got an answer to. “Why did you steal my ring, Rikku,” I ask kindly, looking right into her inhuman eyes.

“Well, I… I thought it would be good because…” She sighed and then started ranting so fast I could barely keep up.

“Rikku, slow down! Just… tell me. I promise I won’t be-”  
“I saw you when you left the Farplane. You were really upset! And that ring… I know the guy who gave it to you, whoever he is, was there and…” she looked down at the ground and mumbled, “I wanted to help you move on. To leave the past behind and… hopefully, help you find someone… new…” she mumbled.

I didn’t hear the last part… all I could say was, “Why would it be so important that I leave the past behind?”

“Because… memories are nice, but that’s all they are,” Rikku said easily, quoting an old proverb of her race. “And… you can’t make new memories if you’re too busy dwelling on the old ones.”

I looked down at my ring and then back up at Rikku. She looked scared, like I would cast a Thundara spell on her at any moment, but I merely shook my head with a tiny smile. 

XxX

Sin is long dead now. Yuna and Tidus have gone and had themselves a large family of five, Wakka’s met himself a nice girl and moved on from Yevon and Sin and his hatred for the Al Bhed.

And then there’s me. I walk along the shore, the sand tickling my feet and getting in between my toes, when I hear Rikku shout, “I found a good spot, Lu! Right here!”

I smile and slowly saunter over, not wishing to overexert myself on such a beautiful day. I don’t understand how Rikku can have so much energy sometimes, after everything that we’ve been through. Especially her. After Sin was defeated, she ran off with Yuna for a bit, worrying me sick… but now she’s back and safe and still as bubbly as ever. 

Rikku smiles, sitting down in the tall grass, right near the ground’s transition from sand to dirt. “This the place?” I ask, kneeling down on the ground next to her and looking at the small empty patch of dirt, nothing there at all, and I figure that’s the perfect spot. 

I look at her and nod my approval and she giggles happily, practically tackling me on the spot. I let out a soft ‘Oof!’ and glare at her but she doesn’t care, still kisses me gently and then rests her chin on my shoulder.

I roll my eyes fondly and reach down, starting to dig a shallow hole in the dirt. Once it’s about six inches deep and my fingers are caked with dirt and I’m sure I’ll never be able to get the dirt out from under my purple colored nails, I over and slide my ring off.

“Are you sure you’re ready, Lu?” Rikku asks me gently, and I can see the change from the girl who was always in a rush to this woman who knows how to pace herself and wait. 

“Yes… I’m ready. Memories are nice, but that’s all they are, right?” I quote her, and she nods, sliding the ring off of my finger and placing it in the small hole for me.

This is the moment Rikku has been anticipating since she entered this relationship for me. I have been unknowingly anticipating this my whole life. It had all been building to this, and it took Rikku for me to figure that out. I needed to let the past go… and now I was. But I could always come and visit it. Although I didn’t think I’d ever need to. I didn’t need to remember the past when I was happy with Chappu when I had a perfectly nice girl right here with me. 

Rikku helps me pile the dirt back on top of the ring and then we both just sit, sit and take in this moment together. She sits in my arms and we watch the slight island breeze blow the brush and trees from side to side. 

As we sit together, we see a spider begin to crawl by us; large enough to fit in Rikku’s palm. I reach over and let it crawl into my hand, looking at it with a smile. “Let’s take it with us,” I say to Rikku, looking back at her warmly.

She raises an eyebrow, as though this behavior is very curious for me, but she still nods and stands up, helping me get up from the ground. “Let’s go home,” she says easily, and I nod, taking her hand in my own and walking up with her back to the village, feeling lighter and happier than I ever have before.


End file.
